Additional Info

Nearby Theaters

According to the archives of the San Bernardino Sun from the Arda Haenszel California Room at the San Bernardino Public Library, the Isis Theater was in operation from 1914-1932. The Sanborn Insurance Maps of 1906 listed a bowling alley at the location, on the north side of the street. The Film Daily Yearbook of 1927 listed the Isis Theater with 350 seats.

Chuck Palmer, writing in the San Bernardino Sun in 1984, noted that the five-cent Isis Theater was located in the shady part of the city. Bordellos were about a block away and its cliental consisted of men down on their luck or who needed a place to sleep off a hangover. It most famous connection to Western lore was Virgil Earp of the famous Earp brothers, who once used the upstairs as gambling den.

After the Isis’ life as a theater it became a shoe repair shop, and probably many other concerns, and was demolished in the 1970’s. The 600 block of W. 3rd Street, where the Isis Theater was located, is no more and its approximate location today would be the City Hall building.